Samsung recently launched the Samsung Edge S7 accompanied
by the Gear VR, the virtual reality component. There is a new war front for
smartphones, neither is it a sleek design nor a water proof nor battery life, its
virtual reality. Consumers want to interact with devices in a natural way, as
if they were part of their environment. The race for virtual reality has been
on for a while. On March 25, 2014,
Facebook purchased a company that makes virtual reality headsets, Oculus VR
which was founded by Palmer Luckey, for $2 billion. There have been several
virtual reality devices that seek to enter the market to complement Oculus Rift
to enhance the game experience. In March 2015, HTC partnered with Valve
Corporation announced their virtual reality headset HTC Vive and controllers,
along with their tracking technology called Lighthouse. In July 2015, OnePlus
became the first company to launch a product using virtual reality. They used
VR as the platform to launch their second flagship device the OnePlus 2, first
viewable using an app on the Google Play Store, then on YouTube.
There could be a game changer in the VR scene, graphene.
Let’s put this into context. The most popular material used in manufacturing
smart devices has hitherto been silicon. Silicon has its limitations. Even
though silicon has been shrunk to allow approximately 2 billion transistors in
a chip, scientists predict that it will reach its threshold by 2020. The other
limitation is that silicon is thick, from a VR perspective. What is graphene
and could it be silicon’s replacement? What difference does it make in the VR
world? Now, if you took your pencil and rubbed it on a piece of paper, you will
get graphite. Graphene is graphite’s relative, made of carbon elements arranged
in hexagonal shape and is one atom thick making it 2 dimensional. Try to
imagine a honeycomb that is too thin for you to see using your naked eye. Despite being one atom thick, graphene is also one of the
strongest materials in the known universe.
The material was discovered, in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin
Novoselov at the University of Manchester. The duo won a Nobel Prize in Physics
in 2010.
The most important properties of graphene are transparency and flexibility, apart from its electrical conductivity. This is ideal for smart devices of different shapes, even more appealing for surface computing. You can manufacture a glass pane with a layer of graphene and suddenly there is a smart window of your house. In future, we could have smart tables in restaurants with menus to choose, newspapers to read or game to play. Devices such as plasma TVs and phones often have screens that are inflexible and breakable. Manufacturers are actively seeking alternatives that could cut costs and provide better conductivity, flexibility and transparency. Graphene is an emerging option. It is non-reflective and appears very transparent. The material presents possibilities to create wearables that fit appropriately and are comfortable. Visualize a contact lens with an interactive inbuilt screen, probably giving you details of a painting as you walk through a gallery or an artifact in a museum. How about smart clothes? We could have newspaper vendor walk around with adverts or a group of dancers with images changing on their clothes.
Another perennial problem has been battery life. Graphene could dramatically increase the lifespan of a traditional lithium ion battery, meaning devices can be charged more quickly - and hold more power for longer. Batteries could be so flexible and light that they can be stitched into clothing or into the body. Solar panels can utilize the material for higher power output and durability. Carrying less weight and using batteries that can be recharged by body heat or the sun would allow for more applications in wearables. Heat dissipation is a major challenge in electronic devices. Now researchers have proposed a complex 3D structure made from a 2D material, known as white graphene, which may provide a solution to this problem. Its heat transfer capabilities are superb, but it’s also an electrical conductor. Graphene oxide can be used to create 'smart' food packaging products. Packaging which has been coated with graphene has the ability to detect atmospheric changes caused by decaying food. The possibilities of the graphene are endless and particularly exciting for the virtual reality world.
The most important properties of graphene are transparency and flexibility, apart from its electrical conductivity. This is ideal for smart devices of different shapes, even more appealing for surface computing. You can manufacture a glass pane with a layer of graphene and suddenly there is a smart window of your house. In future, we could have smart tables in restaurants with menus to choose, newspapers to read or game to play. Devices such as plasma TVs and phones often have screens that are inflexible and breakable. Manufacturers are actively seeking alternatives that could cut costs and provide better conductivity, flexibility and transparency. Graphene is an emerging option. It is non-reflective and appears very transparent. The material presents possibilities to create wearables that fit appropriately and are comfortable. Visualize a contact lens with an interactive inbuilt screen, probably giving you details of a painting as you walk through a gallery or an artifact in a museum. How about smart clothes? We could have newspaper vendor walk around with adverts or a group of dancers with images changing on their clothes.
Another perennial problem has been battery life. Graphene could dramatically increase the lifespan of a traditional lithium ion battery, meaning devices can be charged more quickly - and hold more power for longer. Batteries could be so flexible and light that they can be stitched into clothing or into the body. Solar panels can utilize the material for higher power output and durability. Carrying less weight and using batteries that can be recharged by body heat or the sun would allow for more applications in wearables. Heat dissipation is a major challenge in electronic devices. Now researchers have proposed a complex 3D structure made from a 2D material, known as white graphene, which may provide a solution to this problem. Its heat transfer capabilities are superb, but it’s also an electrical conductor. Graphene oxide can be used to create 'smart' food packaging products. Packaging which has been coated with graphene has the ability to detect atmospheric changes caused by decaying food. The possibilities of the graphene are endless and particularly exciting for the virtual reality world.
